I like # 4 the best.
There is something Candy Land about it that makes this cozy little cottage look
happy.
Can't you just see Dorothy in her checker board red printed dress skipping around the circular path followed by
Toto who just leaped out of her wicker picnic basket ?

With such an embarrassment of riches, I just can't make up my mind, but I do see a "follow the yellow marigold road" sort of thing going on with #4.

Once the wooden hanger for the "for sale"sign comes down, that's not too bad a space in which to do something. Something basic and simple like a grouping of conifers or a nice flowering ornamental tree out in the lawn to break up the white siding - as well as redirecting the eye from the topper truck (perhaps not a permanent fixture) in the neighboring driveway and the grey house (permanent fixture) looming in the background. In a less is more vein, a graceful flowering shrub between the steps and downspout.

I'm curiours about ideasshare. I'm not sure if I missed it somewhere along the line - you are clearly interested in garden design in some way. I'm not sure if it's a personal interest or whether you are a student of ornamental horticulture/design of some sort in China...? The mock-ups you post are somewhat odd in comparison to what is usual around here. Are your mock-ups presenting things that are common in Chinese domestic landscapes? I would be interested in seeing what the average home in China's garden looks like - can you, on a seperate thread, post photos and tell us what a Chinese home's garden looks like? That, to me, would make for a more interesting discussion than the mock-ups you do. (Sorry Betty for hijacking the thread... I've been curious about these odd and vivid pictures that have been appearing lately...)

Hi deviant,duluthinbloomz,woodyoak.
thank your some interest,i add other some ideas again.dont hope bother you.
Most chinese in china are poor,havnt garden.my house is small, only plant 5 trees,some shrub in our

house.but chinese style garden have 5000 years history.
I enjoy study some garden ideas in GardenWeb.com,but there are some different in my feeling,I can

control arbor grow in my experience by dirt thick rate,but some people didnt agree.
I love west multi-culture,hope go New York as student,study garden design.my father have given me

some money.last year,my IELTS grade is 5.5,January 20,2009,I will take an examination of TELTS.

I wondered about that re how much garden room people would have, especially in urban areas. What part of China are you from? Rural or urban? It's such a big country, gardening conditions would be considerably different from place to place. Are there more/any gardens in rural areas or is all available land used for practical things like food crops? China does have that history of gardening but it is not as well known here as Japanese-style gardening, and certainly many of the beautiful plants grown in our gardens originated in China. If private gardens are not common, are there public gardens instead? What trees and shrubs do you grow? What is on your arbour?

To ideasshare,
You are showing great imagination in your landscape design charettes and your computer illustrations skills are quite admirable.

I wish you the very best of luck when you travel from China to New York to further your studies in garden design.
If you have a chance to travel to the San Francisco Bay area in Northern California I think you will find a wealth of information and education on garden design.
There is a wonderfully large Asian population in this area with extensive arts and cultural activities that occur on a daily basis.

I currently have a project being built in a predominately Chinese section of the city and have been enjoying and exploring new Asian art galleries, book stores, restaurants, museums and some old favorite gardens and Asian garden supply stores after I finish my my job site tasks.

I was somewhat aware that Japanese-style gardens have their roots in the Chinese Scholar's garden tradition. There's a nice Scholar's Garden in Vancouver in Canada (I live in Canada.) Although I don't live on the west coast where that garden is, I used to visit there often and have been to the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen garden.

Thanks for the pictures. I particularly liked the balcony with the plants growing between the stones on the wall! Is it common to find the patterned beds of flowers like the picture you included above? Your computer images seem to use that sort of idea a lot so I wondered if that was a common sort of planting there.